


Employee of the Month

by sidana



Series: The Peter Black Stories [3]
Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 17:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16223780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidana/pseuds/sidana
Summary: By most appearances, Peter's other part time job is of a more normal sort





	Employee of the Month

Disclaimer: not my characters, not my universe, I'll put them back when I'm done playing with them  
********************

Employee of the Month

"You're definitely free for the weekend?" Miguel asked. He stuffed a group of french fries in his mouth as he waited for his friends to respond.

"No shifts at work between Thursday night and Monday night," Tony said.

"Yeah, definitely free," Peter said. "Becca's doing some sort of Girl Scout Brownie weekend so I don't have to keep an eye on her while Ted's still out of town. Why, you got a plan?"

"Of course I do. Do you think I'd be asking if I didn't? Trust the man here."

"Are you going to share? Because I'm so not doing anything with you clowns again without good intel. Mom's still taking my share of the fine we had to pay for off-roading on closed logging roads out of my paycheck," Peter said.

"No, no more off road until the parts I ordered for the truck come in. It's something far better than that. Tanya Granato's parents are in Phoenix for the weekend, and she's trying to put together her party guest list. I think I can get us in there." Tanya was a year older than they were, and the Granato girls parties were supposed to be fine affairs. It was a big deal to be a junior to get an invite to one of the events.

"Definitely sounds better than spending another five hours in a truck cab than you two," Tony said.

"Count me in too," Peter said, looking at his watch. "In the mean time, I've got to roll here. I've got to pick up Becca from ballet, and then go over to the shop and get some hours in so that I've got some money for whatever else we do this weekend."

"Have fun counting up all the crystals and being forced to be nice to the fat hippie women who don't shave their pits, and who stink like incense," Miguel said. He half-closed his eyes, and began to flutter his hands around his head. "No, wait, wait, I'm having a vision that says you should stay put here instead of going over to that pansy-ass place and working for mommy. I seriously think the only place that's more pansy-ass is the store in the mall that sells those stupid ceramic bears that my little sister likes to collect."

"So says the man, or should I say boy, that spends his job saying 'Do you want fries with that?'. Which is even more lame than my job," Peter said, throwing one of his remaining fries at Miguel. It was long-time and comfortable ribbing among the friends. "At Mom's shop, I'm the one doing most of the books now, keeping up with the accounts payable and receivable and shit. You, you're spending all your waking hours smelling like hot grease."

"But at least I've got the groove going on. You know Tricia Schneider? Blonde, hair, killer tits and ass?"

"What about Tricia?" Tony said.

"She's the new carhop at work. For now, I've got one fine view when she's skating an order out to the customers, and I'm working hard to have it be more than just a look," Miguel said.

"Like you'd ever have a chance. Not that I've heard Tricia's picky, but they say she doesn't normally date neanderthals," Peter said, ducking to the side before Miguel could return fire with potatoes of his own. He crumpled up the remains and wrappers of his own burger and fries, then got up to go. "Until manana, bitches."

"See you, Peter."

"Don't let the hippie-dippies get you down."

At that, Peter slid out of the booth, dumped his tray into the trash, and headed out of Burger King to pick up his sister.

******************

For all the mocking that was involved, Peter still liked working for his mother. He got to pick his hours during the week, so it was easy enough to schedule time around karate and training with Ted. The customers were nice enough, even if they were a bit weird. And with what he was learning, he could turn around and get a bookkeeping job at some other type of store down the road if he needed to take a day job for whatever reason.

Plus, there were things he could learn from the people who came into the shop. Mom may not have had some sort of magical talent, but a lot of people who did trusted her with their business. Go beyond the dreamcatchers and all the other tourist crap that actually came from China, and she carried a lot of things that could turn into very real magic. It was just a matter of paying attention.

Take tonight, for example. It was after seven, Mom and Becca had already gone home, and he had flipped the store sign to 'closed' and locked the door after the last of the women in Mrs. Evans' group had staggered in from the cold. Mom had a small meeting room to one side of the shop. A mix of people in the community used it for everything from book groups to tarot readings to meditation circles where they pushed the table and chairs out of the way and sat on mats on the floor. Mrs. Evans came in there after hours on Wednesdays to teach a class to a small group of novice witches on everything from protection charms to ethical behavior for magic users.

Peter finished up his inventory count on a large display of candles, then stuck his head briefly into the meeting room.

"Peter, you're welcome to join us in twenty minutes," Mrs. Evans said. He didn't even have to ask the question anymore. So he spent that time shelf-reading the book section until that time was up.

He then joined Mrs. Evans and her circle in the conference room, quietly listening as the women talked among themselves. He had inherited his Mom's lack of magical ability, so learning how he could cast some sort of spell wasn't really the point. It was more about learning how all of that magic shit worked, and how to ask for help from the right people when he found himself up against something supernatural that a bullet, blade, or flamethrower couldn't handle. He wasn't sure if Mom had caught on yet, but in it's own way, it was on the job training just as much as learning about Quickbooks had been.


End file.
